One solution I see as a parent educator since 1956 is for parents to turn from punitive discipline to compassionate care-giving. Gangs will have no allure for kids who have close and loving relationships with their parents.

It's time for all of us to hear the warning Dr. Karl Menninger, psychiatrist and founder of the Menninger Institute, issued long ago: "What is done to a child, he will do to society." A respected child will respect society; an abused or neglected child will pay it back.

Molly Brown Koch

The writer is a columnist for Baltimore's Child Magazine and the author of "27 Secrets to Raising Amazing Children."